


Etrian Odyssey: Redux

by MeltingPenguins (lilmaibe)



Category: Etrian Odyssey Series, 新・世界樹の迷宮 ミレニアムの少女 | Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 16:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilmaibe/pseuds/MeltingPenguins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>-People claimed that it would not have been possible to have the new canon of Untold with a random party. This is the attempt to prove that it can work.-<br/>Follow the Baliza Guild to Etria and into the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, and see what they'll find.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Etrian Odyssey: Redux

“If that sentence’s gonna end with ‘too innocent’ I’ll make you choke on your words.”  
With a huff the young, white-haired man, a Dark Hunter named Elva, sat back and pulled his cloak tighter around him as he watched the other patrons in the bar come and go, as well as side-eyeing the people sitting at the table in the corner with him.  
He knew only one of them, actually. The blonde woman with constantly downcast eyes and a shy, but warm smile. She was the Medic Zoya, and they had known each other for several years now. Good enough to decide to follow the call to the remote town of Etria together, to uncover the secrets of the underground labyrinth just outside the city. It was a most curious thing, they had thought, and decided to give it a try.  
So here they were. They had looked around the town a little, talked to a few people, and then, in a stroke of luck, or bad luck, depending how you look at it, ran into some others who regretted coming here as much as they did.  
One of them was a bulky Protector named Julmuri, a mountain of a man, twice as high as wide, probably all of it muscles. His very presence was unsettling, seeing he rarely spoke. Elva had mused that the air just takes too long to go from his lungs to his throat to use it regularly for more than grumbling and murmuring.  
The other man of the three they’ve found was a lithe, dark haired Landsknecht named Eoh, who seemed to make up for his comrades’ grumpiness.  
The last member of the group was a dark-skinned Troubadour named Naia, about the same size as Zoya, but much livelier and talkative than the quiet medic.  
In total, that made their group add up to five. Enough to form a guild (which they had called Baliza, which, according to Naia meant beacon in an old language) to tackle the labyrinth. Though they now had a guild, there still wasn’t much they could do yet. Not before they’d finish an initiation mission given out by the town’s council, the Radha.  
They hadn’t gotten said mission yet, so they had to wait. Oh, they had been at Radha Hall, but had been sent away for some reason, getting told to come back later. So they decided to spent the time at the biggest local tavern, The Golden Deer, drinking, and getting to actually know each other a little.  
Right now they were bickering, with Eoh commenting on how Elva does not come across as one of the infamous Dark Hunters.  
“Sorry”, the Landsknecht cackled, after Elva had cut him off and huffed. “It’s just...”  
“I know,” Elva glowered and clutched his keg, before downing the liquid.  
“What d’you think’s keeping them?” said Naia, looking at the door again.  
“Who?” Eoh followed the troubadour's gaze.  
“All of them,” said Naia, tilting her head a little and flicking her long ponytail back. “The Radha, our food.”  
At least one part of the question was answered when a guard suddenly came in, had a brief exchange the Valerie, the barmaid, who pointed over at the group. Instantly all five of them lowered their drinks, and craned their heads, silently, as did some other patrons. While it wasn’t uncommon that the city’s guards brought in requests from the Radha, them actively looking for a specific person or group was rather new.  
“You are the Baliza guild?”, the guard asked, the very moment he stood near their table in the corner.  
They nodded.  
“Come with me”, his tone made clear that there wouldn’t be much of a choice. Not that the guild would have denied, anyway. “The Radha wishes to speak with you.”

Several minutes of paying the drinks and walked across the town’s plaza, some mumbling about wasted food, and more walking, the guild stood within the sacred halls of the town’s council, having been asked to wait here and not touch anything.  
“My apologies for keeping you waiting,” greeted a ginger-haired man the group already knew as Quinn. He was something like the link between the council and the adventurers coming to the Hall in order to fulfill missions for the town in the depths of the Labyrinth.  
The guild nodded. There was no one else here, except for some of the people working here buzzing back and forth in the corridors.  
“I have summoned you here as I wish to hand a slightly odd request to you”, Quinn continued, and nodded at one of the guards, who left.  
“If I recall it correctly, you have just recently formed your guild and have not yet done the traditional initiation mission. Now, due to certain circumstances, we have a situation that, albeit it’s not the traditional task, should prove your skills and worth equally.”  
As the subaltern had finished, the guard returned with a young red haired woman in armor, who nodded a friendly greeting at the group.  
“This is Lady Raquna Sheldon,” Quinn introduced the female Protector, “She’s a member of the Midgard Library Research Institute and had recently visited our city. Lady Raquna, if you’d like to explain the matter at hand.”  
The woman nodded, and grinned at the group.  
“We came here to see about some odds and ends ‘bout the labyrinth. Didn’t find much interesting, but now one of our group went back there alone and hasn’t come back yet. Can be a bit of a scatterbrain at times, so he probably managed to get lost on the first floor. Don’t think he got himself into trouble. Now, thing is our ship is leaving for home later the day, so… The subaltern,” she pointed her thumb at Quinn, “told me you’re wanting to do the initiation mission, and, we thought, eh, why not send them and drag Simon back?”  
“Would you accept this request?”, Quinn asked, once the woman had finished.  
The guild looked at each other, no one saying anything, not counting a wide range of facial expressions, before Eoh answered.  
“We gladly accept,” he said, bowing.  
“No need to bow like that,” laughed the woman, and leaned closer to the Landsknecht. “Just one thing. Do me a favour and kick his butt for not telling us why he went into the maze all by himself, eh?”  
Eoh blinked, and then nodded, a little awkwardly.  
“As you wish.”  
\---  
“Isn’t the Midgard Library this thing with the really clever people?”, asked Elva, as they strutted along the path leading from the city to the labyrinth’s entrance. “How does anyone from there get lost on the first floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth?”  
Naia snorted: “Good question. Maybe their standard for ‘clever’ varies from ours.”  
“That’s not a nice thing to say about someone trying to uncover the secrets of the past,” Eoh interrupted, but Naia nudged him in the side.  
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” she winked, “But there are other such groups, and none of those got lost on the first floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth.”  
The Landsknecht frowned and adjusted his knapsack, as they finally reached the entrance to the Labyrinth.  
“This is it?”, asked Zoya, looking at the archway formed by trees, in awe, as she pressed her bag to her chest.  
“Looks pretty inviting, actually”, said Elva, scratching his head.  
“But so do anglerfish and venus flytraps,” Naia added, and the Dark Hunter nodded.  
“True.”  
“Well, shall we go then?”, said Eoh, pointing down the small set of stairs. “I mean, we have been tasked to find a missing person. We should try and get him back alive.”  
The others nodded and headed past the archway, a small slope leading onto a small clearing.  
“It’s beautiful…”, Zoya whispered, stepping forward.  
“Yeah,” said Naia, peeking around, “odd how different it looks from the forest outside. How d’you think did it happen?”  
“Did what happen?”  
Naia smiled at the blonde Medic.  
“The labyrinth, of course. Don’t tell me you don’t know the stories.”  
Suddenly the entire groups attention was on the Troubadour, and her grin grew broader.  
“Well, guess it’s my job to know all those odds and ends,” she said, and stretched. “You see, no one knows how old this labyrinth is. They say it was discovered only some decades back, not many. But there’s rumours that people have gone here long before that, and the labyrinth swallowed them all. And when they were all gone, the maze lay forgotten for years and years. Till they found its new entrance,” she pointed at the archway they had just come through.  
“There’s rumours that the Labyrinth is everchanging. Not just paths getting overgrown by plants and the like, as you’d have it in any other forest, no. They say that its winding paths change ever so slowly, till the labyrinth is entirely new.”  
“Oh, I heard about that”, Elva chimed in, sitting down on one a treestump. “They say that if you were to return to a floor after less than ten years, it would have changed so much, your old maps would be useless. Wasn’t it that the paths further down disappeared in that progress, too? Or something.”  
“Yes, unfortunately,” a voice called out and the group spun around, facing one of the Etrian guards.  
The soldier nodded a greeting.  
“Haven’t seen you here before. Are you new?” he asked.  
“Yes,” answered Eoh, and started rummaging through his bag, “Mission from the Radha.” He pulled out a letter they had gotten from the council, and handed it to the guard. “Unless of course you have already found the person in question.”  
The guard read, and shook his head.  
“Unfortunately, no. I can’t leave my post here, but I know who they are talking about. The last time I saw him was this morning. I had though he went back to town by other means than the stairs.”  
“Other means?”, said Elva, tilting his head rather intrigued.  
“You will see once you finished this mission,” the guard said, rather roughly. “And you better finish it in the intended way. It’s a shame, really, a member of the honoured Midgard Library getting lost on the very first floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. If anything bad happened to him…”  
“It would all come back onto the town,” said Eoh, sighing. “Yes, we’ve been told. Say, you might not have an idea where he could be?”  
The guard shook his head, and made to rummage through his own bag, finally pulling out a small box and a piece of parchment.  
“Unfortunately, no. He might be anywhere, but I’m certain he hasn’t left this floor. So… let me ask you, guild…” he checked the letter again, “Baliza, can you draw a map?”  
The party looked at each other, and finally Elva, who was still sitting on his stump, answered.  
“Not really, but is that necessary?”  
The guard looked at the Dark Hunter a little disappointed, “You said it yourself, the labyrinth is everchanging. And that’s not just a rumour. A map is essential, and,” he coughed, “In all honesty. If a member of the Midgard Library gets lost on the first floor, I wouldn’t expect that much of rookies like you. So you best learn how to draw a map, you _will_ need it.”  
Moments later the guild had left the guard in his spot and proceeded to scout the maze.  
“Unfriendly, wasn’t he?”, Elva grumbled as soon as they were out of hearing range.  
“Somewhat,” said Naia, “Yes, none of us has ever been to a labyrinth like this, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely clueless about the whole thing.”  
The others nodded, except for Julmuri, who had been quietly (as always) been walking behind the group, and who now made a wide step to stand in front of Naia and Zoya, shield raised, baffling both women for a moment.  
“Julmuri, what…”, Eoh didn’t get to ask, when suddenly something jumped out of the thicket.  
A white tiger, long fangs covered in blood, crashed against the Protector’s shield, and both staggered backwards, the vicious beast more so than Julmuri.  
The tiger growled, and roared, and jumped at them again, before anyone could draw their weapons.  
Elva dodge out of its way, dragging Naia with him, and Julmuri threw himself into the beast’s side, sending it rolling over.  
Just as it was back on it its feet, the Protector raised his arm and knocked the monster out cold.  
The others blinked as the beast lay twitching and then still.  
“Did you just knock out a tiger?”, asked Eoh, baffled.  
Julmuri just shrugged his shoulders as if to answer.  
Eoh smacked his lips, impressed.  
“Is everyone alright?”, he then asked.  
They nodded, scrambling to their feet and dusting off their clothes.  
“We need to be more careful, I think”, said Elva, breaking off the monster’s fangs.  
“What are you doing there?”, asked Zoya.  
“Haven’t you seen? These fetch a nice bit of money, and I’m certain the shop can turn these into something nifty, too,” Elva answered, grinning.  
“You can’t keep your money and spent it, you know,” Naia teased, poking the Dark Hunter in the side.  
Elva grumbled: “I was just saying.”  
They moved on, following a long path south, with Naia trying to keep track of the paths on the parchment, stopping as they spotted something at a dead end.  
“Think that’s the guy we’re looking for?”, asked Elva, nodding at the tall, young but grey-haired man in a white coat sitting by a small spring.  
“I’d say so, by the looks of it,” said Eoh, and then louder he called out, “Mr Yorke? Mr Simon Yorke?”  
The man turned, and blinked, as if abruptly woken from a dream.  
“Yes?”, he said, standing up.  
“Good, you are alright,” continued the Landsknecht and briefly introduced the guild, “We have been asked to find you. Your associates are worried for you staying away so long.”  
“Staying away so…”, the male Medic blinked again, and looked up, “What time is it?”  
“Almost evening,” said Naia.  
“Evening? Oh, that’s not good.”  
“No, it isn’t,” Eoh said, looking the man before him up and down, “Come, we should go. If I understood it correctly, you are bound to leave tonight.”  
The man, Simon, nodded.  
“I don’t believe I can do so, however,” he said.  
“And why? Oh, and if I may ask, why did you come here alone?”  
Simon looked at Eoh.  
“There’s a single answer to both these questions,” he said, “You see, I lost a small bag of notebooks. The findings in there are absolutely priceless and irreplaceable. I can not return home without them, neither do I wish to do so. That is why I came here.”  
“You don’t look as if you found anything,” said Naia.  
At this, Simon adjusted his glasses, as they walked on.  
“I haven’t, unfortunately. I had hope I had lost them when we came here following rumours about magical water; the small spring down the path; but after thoroughly searching the area, I fear I must have lost them…”, he paused, and the party waited.  
“Lost them… Where?” asked Naia, hopping into the male Medic’s path for a moment, looking at him.  
Simon sighed. “Although I am not allowed to get third parties involved, the matter at hand is a little pressing, as those documents are, as mentioned, inestimable and irreplaceable”, the tall Medic cleared his throat.  
“What I am going to tell you now is confidential, and I must ask you not to tell anyone. A day worth of carriage ride away from Etria lay ruins of an ancient civilization. The Library had recently uncovered a set of ancient maps, most likely dating back to the last days of the old order and the kingdoms thereof. On one of these maps we found notes on a line of locations all over the world, and though the world now differs from what it had been at the time, we have been able to determine that the marked locations all lay in a certain distance to the Yggdrasils that tower into the Heavens across the world. There are no records about where the trees come from, so, as you may expect, such a discovery was outstanding. A number of research teams were deployed to the locations in question, and my team and I were sent here, to Etria. Or better to the ruins of Gladsheim, if our translation is correct. I believe the town’s chieftain was not at all amused about our request.”  
At this point Eoh interrupted the grey-haired Medic.  
“And why? I mean, from what I know the whole town is very dependent on adventurer’s trying to uncover the labyrinth’s secrets. An additional labyrinth to uncover can’t be a bad thing then.”  
Simon smiled a small smile.  
“Oh, please don’t understand me wrong when I say the chieftain was not amused. I do doubt he was unhappy with the idea of someone exploring the site, and believe he was rather worried for our welfare. Those are unknown, ancient ruins, after all. But alas,” Simon sighed, “When we finally got there, we were gravely disappointed.”  
“How so?”, asked Elva, as they turned a corner.  
“You see, while we were lucky and an entrance was easy to find -I assume a landslide must have uncovered it in recent years- , there was not much to explore. All we found was a single room. So, our findings consisted of sketches of the interior and its details, amongst them a copy of a number of writings we have found. Therefore, as I do believe I must have dropped the bag there and as I do require my notes back, and I would hereby like to ask you to head to the ruins of Gladsheim, retrieve my belongings, and send them to the Library’s headquarters. Can I ask that of you?”  
The party exchanged views.  
“Well, not what we came here for, but I’m certain it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Eoh, as they reached the entrance arch. “We will have to ask the Radha, though.”

“Subaltern?”, Simon spoke up the very moment they had returned to town and entered the hall, and Quinn turned a little baffled. “I request permission for the Baliza-Guild to go to the ruins of Gladsheim in order to retrieve my lost belongings from there.”  
The subaltern furrowed his brows, and shook his head in disbelief as if he was doubting to have heard what he just heard.  
“What do you… You do know that it is not poss-...”  
“As you know”, the grey-haired medic cut him off, his tone harsh and resolute, much to the subaltern’s chargrin, “and as I have informed the Baliza-Guild, these findings and notes are inestimable and irreplaceable. I have not been able to find the lost bag in the labyrinth, so I must have lost it in the ruins. But as we have already sent word to the Library concerning our departure today, in addition to certain other circumstances, which you are perfectly aware of, it is not possible for us to head back to there. Therefore I am hereby officially requesting the Radha to permit the Baliza-Guild into the ruins of Gladsheim, to retrieve my belongings and send those after me. I have already asked them to do so, in fact, and all that remains is permission and an escort from the Radha.”  
Quinn took a deep breath, both men looking at each other with narrowed eyes.  
“Very well,” the subaltern finally gave in, and turned towards the guild.  
“I assume you have been informed about the aforementioned ruins, despite all agreements that had been made about the matter.” The last part was clearly directed at Simon, who huffed.  
“But seeing that the esteemed team of the Library has not been able to find anything at all,” Quinn continued, “I believe your involvement can be permitted. I would only ask you to leave now, as the ride there takes a bit of time.”

“They were close to ripping each other’s throats out in there,” Elva noted, as a guard escorted the guild out of the Hall and towards a waiting carriage.  
“Well,” said Zoya, “The Radha is responsible for the safety of the town and the people in it. And I can understand when they don’t wish to endanger novices like us by sending us to some ancient ruins far away from town.”  
“Yeah, but you heard what that Simon said,” Naia shrugged, climbing into the carriage, “They have found a single dingy room, so I doubt we’ll have problems.”  
“I can’t remember him using the word ‘dingy’”, said Zoya, climbing after the Troubadour. When finally everyone was seated, the carriage rattled off, Elva and Zoya actually falling asleep just a little after they had passed the city gates.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say ‘This is not what I expected’”  
Naia stood with her hands on her hips, a brow raised, in a corridor near the hole leading into the ancient ruins. They had arrived about half an hour ago, and the guard with them had pointed out how to get into the complex. They had followed those directions, and now stood inside their destination.  
The others were bearing similar expressions to the Troubadour’s. Ruins these surely were, going by the amount of debris and caved in paths and general ‘not new-ness’ of what they saw before them.  
But that was were the site’s definition of ruins stopped adding up with that of the party.  
The walls were in most spots still incredibly smooth, though dirty, and in few parts covered entirely in metal, some of those giving off an eerie light. It was also possible they were made from some metal to begin with. There was an unsettling atmosphere in the area, and that wasn’t even taking the huge, often broken windows into account.  
“We should go and find that bag,” Eoh mumbled, his hand on his weapon. “I don’t really want to stay here longer than necessary. This place is…”  
“Weird?”, said Elva. “Creepy?”  
“No, not that. I don’t know what to call it,” the Landsknecht sighed and walked on. “Come. It can’t be far.”  
It was as the other Medic had said. The area was small, with no visible means of getting deeper into the ruins, if there actually was anywhere else to go.  
“What do you think this was?”, Zoya asked at a point, looking around.  
“Hard to say,” Elva shrugged. “I mean, there’s nothing here that points to any purpose, just walls, walls, walls, and those stupid flickering lights.” He looked up. “How d’you think they work? Don’t strike me as magic.”  
“Alchemy, maybe?”, Eoh suggested, shouldering his sword, when there was a sound nearby.  
“Did you hear that?”, he said, looking in the direction of where he had heard something.  
Said direction was a small, dark corridor with something moving there. The group approached carefully, finding a huge spider dragging a bag across the ground. Noticing the group the spider stopped, looked at the group and hissed. Eoh make a huge step towards the monster, and the thing scrambled through a vertical gap in one of the walls.  
“That… was easy,” the Landsknecht said, sounding a little disappointed. Meanwhile, Naia picked up the bag, rummaging through it.  
“I think we got what we came for,” she announced, and looked at the hole in the wall before them. “Should we…?”  
They looked at each other, all a little awkwardly. Something about the whole was most peculiar. There had been several holes in various sizes along the way, but this one...  
“This is odd”, said Eoh, stepping towards the gap and inspecting it carefully.  
It wasn’t actually looking much like a hole at all. Not a natural one, by all means. It wasn’t much wider or longer than the Landsknecht’s arm, and its edges were too smooth.  
“This isn’t a hole,” he finally said, blinking in surprise. “That’s a door. Julmuri, could you…?”  
Without a word the Protector stepped to Eoh’s side, shoved a hand into the gap, and under a screeching and scratching noise coming from the metal, pushed the door open.  
Beyond it was another corridor, with two metal walls, as far as the group could tell from here.  
“So, the metal walls are doors,” said Naia, walking behind the advancing group, carefully.  
“Seems so,” said Elva, and stopped next to one of those doors. “Wonder why some glow and others don’t.”  
He moved a hand along the doorframe, as one of the parts suddenly gave in. Elva instinctively drew his hand back, but as nothing happened, he looked at the door again. It was glowing in a reddish tone, and the part he had just moved his hand across struck him as a button.  
He pressed it again.  
And again.  
Nothing happened.  
“Elva, what are you doing there?”, said Eoh, who was standing a few feet away in front of a blueish glowing door.  
“I found a button,” said Elva.  
“You aren’t pressing it, are you?”  
“Nope,” said the Dark Hunter, pressing the button again.  
“Stop that! You don’t know what that does.”  
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”  
The next moment Julmuri’s hand was suddenly around Elva’s wrist -well, lower arm-, and the Protector shook his head as the smaller man looked up at him.  
Zoya stood on Elva’s other side, looking at the button on the wall.  
“I think it’s meant to open the door. Maybe the red light means it’s locked.”  
“Possible,” Eoh said, and looked at the door before him. “This one’s blue. Do you think it means this one’s unlocked?”  
Elva, after Julmuri had finally let him go, hoppled to the Landsknecht’s side and rocked back and forth on his feet, grinning.  
“Only one way to find out,” he said, and despite Eoh’s attempt at protesting, pushed the button.  
The door before them opened with a ‘whoosh’ and the lights in the room behind it flickered on.  
“Alright, the surprised don’t stop,” said Eoh, the whole group looking at an odd contraption standing against one of the walls. It looked a bit like a coffin, but there were pipes and wires running from it.  
There was a much smaller contraption next to it, with a few more buttons.  
The group approached carefully, gazing at the things in the room, when Zoya suddenly shrieked.  
“There’s a girl in there!”, she said, pointing, and the others turned their head. The Medic was right. There was a small, dusty window in the coffin-like thing, giving view to a little girl.  
“Is she alive?” asked Naia, as the party gathered around the contraption.  
“If she is,” said Eoh, “We need to get her out.”  
No one in the group had to be told twice. Everyone was trying to get the thing open, but to no avail.  
“It’s pointless,” Eoh finally said, a little out of breath. Even Julmuri couldn’t get the thing to budge.  
“Hey,” Elva called, “There’s buttons here, maybe…”  
“This might get the girl killed.”  
“You know, we’re in ruins that are roughly a bazillion years old,” the Dark Hunter started defending himself, “That girl is locked away. I dare say she’s in there for a reason.”  
“Are you saying she’s a monster?”, asked Eoh.  
“She might be.”  
The Landsknecht pondered, then frowned.  
“Would you say the same if I’d let you press buttons?”  
Elva blinked.  
“Oh that poor girl,” he sing-sang, “We certainly have to free her!” With that, he happily started pushing all the buttons in front of him at once, and an alarm sounded.  
“You are a moron, did I tell you that already?”, Eoh grumbled through clenched teeth, drawing his weapon, preparing for what could come.  
What came was a huge cloud of steam from the contraption, and amidst the groups following coughing, a slumping sound, followed by a soft whimper after a moment.  
As the steam cleared, the girl lay on the ground, slowly waking and sitting up. The party still had their weapons drawn, waiting.  
The girl, small, blonde, and not much older than twelve, sat up, blinked, adjusting to the light several times, rubbed her eyes, and only then noticed the people around her. She gave a short gasp, and looked at them wordlessly. Then past them at the open door. She blinked. Once. Twice. Then she staggered to her feet, the thick white clothing she had been wearing fell off, revealing a blue dress underneath, and made to run past the group for the door.  
Elva caught her by the wrist and she gave a squeak.  
The girl blinked at him, shaking her head and trying to pull herself free. She opened her mouth and said something.  
At least she made sounds and the group assumed she was speaking.  
Her tone sounded angry, but desperate and urgent.  
Elva looked at her, shrugging his shoulders helplessly, but still not letting her go.  
“What?”, he managed and the girl fell silent.  
“We should take her to the Radha. Maybe someone there can understand her,” Zoya suggested, and approached the girl, and looking her over.  
“She seems unharmed,” she said and leaned over to be at eye-height with the girl, before holding out her hand carefully.  
The girl blinked again, and slowly took it. Elva let go of her, and the very instance the girl pointed desperately down the corridor.  
The party looked at each other, cluelessly, before Zoya looked back at the girl, who looked close to panic.  
Then she patted at the chamber’s door with her free hand.  
“Door?”  
The girl seemed to think for a moment and nodded eagerly.  
Zoya sighed, and looked apologising, letting go of the girl’s hand.  
“Door”, she said then said and clapped her hands together in front of her face. “Closed. Locked.” She intertwined her fingers and made a pulling motion.  
The girl blinked and by the expression sneaking onto her face she had understood. For some reason she then patted at her dress, her face growing paler, the traces of desperation making place for more panic and devastation. That she then slumped down added to that impression.  
“Oh dear,” Eoh managed, as he and Julmuri caught the girl. “We really should head back to town now.”  
The other’s nodded, the Fortress supporting the much, much smaller figure as they then left, the little blonde girl pale as a sheet and by all means a little apathetic, as if in shock.

It was just before sunrise when the group arrived back in town. The little girl they found hadn’t even tried to communicate with them all the way back, but at least she had calmed now. She still looked as though she had seen a ghost.  
There weren’t many people out at this hour, and rarely anyone, except for a few fellow adventurers that were fresh back from the labyrinth or were just heading out, payed the Baliza guild any attention.  
Zoya was gently holding the smaller blonde by the hand, and the girl looked even younger the way she clutched the Medic’s hand like a lifeline as they walked across the plaza stopping briefly before the gates of the council’s headquarter.  
“Do you think anyone will be up at this ungodly hour?”, asked Elva, shaking his head in doubt.  
Eoh and Naia both drew breath to answer, but didn’t get a chance too, as Zoya suddenly spoke up concerned.  
“What’s wrong, dear?” she was addressing the little girl (even though she know her words wouldn’t be understood, she hoped her tone would), who was staring wide-eyed and shaking up at one of the windows, her grip tightening around the medics hand.  
Almost like one the guild looked up, just in time to catch a glimpse of someone retreating from the window into the shadows.  
“A council member,” Julmuri stated, matter of factly, his sonorous voice a steady grumble.  
“You don’t have to be afraid,” Zoya said, and the girl looked at her, her grip relaxing a little.  
As they walked into the building, Julmuri remained outside for a moment, eyes still fixed on the window above, brows knitted, before he followed the others.

“No, she hasn’t even tried to communicate all the way back.”  
Not much after that the guild was standing in the main chamber of Radha Hall again, Eoh and Elva now giving the details to Quinn. The subaltern had been surprised, to say the least, that the group had brought back a little girl from the ruins.  
Quinn nodded as the Dark Hunter had finished.  
“We will have our scholars try to talk with her as soon as she appears to be feeling better. May I ask your opinion on what that contraption was you found her in?”  
“Looked a bit like a coffin to me. But she’s alive and kicking, so...” Eoh shrugged and looked over at the blonde girl, who was standing huddled into a corner near the great fresco, waiting for someone to pick her up. At least he hoped she had understood someone was going to pick her up.  
Zoya and Naia were standing next to her, talking soothingly, and even if the girl most likely didn’t understand a word, it seemed to help her calm.  
“Poor thing,” Eoh said, still craning his neck, and the subaltern nodded.  
“We shall do our best not to frighten her more than she already appears to be,” he said, “Now, I assume you will finally be heading into the labyrinth properly?”  
Eoh and Elva nodded.  
“Then I wish you good luck. Feel free to come here and ask about the young lady, if you so wish, seeing you are already involved. Just one thing I have to ask of you: Do not speak to anyone about the ruins. The chieftain appears to be rather upset about you being told about them already, and…” Quinn stopped, thinking.  
“Anything amiss, Sir?”, asked Eoh.  
“What? Oh, no. Just something irrelevant that suddenly came to mind. My apologies. Well then, again, I must ask you not to tell anyone about the ruins.”


End file.
